Amusement games such as pinball games and video games are often found together in arcades and other gaming establishments. The designers of these games strive to constantly provide innovations to continue to attract interest, both for attracting new players and for retaining the interest of present players.
In pinball games, generally speaking, a playfield upon which a rolling ball is supported is located in a generally horizontally disposed cabinet. The playfield is usually tilted or inclined at a slight angle to cause the ball to roll toward the end or bottom of the playfield, where the skilled player may use flippers to attempt to propel the ball back into the playfield area. A display for pinball games usually consists of an alphanumeric display for showing the score of one or more players. This display is usually mounted in a backbox which is mounted above the cabinet and generally at an end opposite the player position. The display may utilize electromechanical alphanumeric display elements or electrical or electronic illuminated display elements such as neon tubes or LEDs or the like. In some cases, so-called dot matrix display elements have been used to generate alphanumeric displays, and other somewhat limited visual displays.
Video games generally utilize a video display on a cathode ray tube (CRT) or equivalent device to, in effect, provide the "playfield" for the game. This, in effect, replaces the mechanical playfield and rolling ball of the pinball game. However, many types of game action can be displayed in video games.
Thus, generally speaking, video games have heretofore not provided an opportunity of using a playfield with a rolling ball and other mechanical or electromechanical elements with which the ball interacts in the playfield. On the other hand, pinball games have not heretofore provided the range and complexity of changeable visual effects or displays comparable with those available in video games. Moreover, the play action in pinball games has heretofore been restricted to interaction of the rolling ball with various playfield devices or play features in the playfield. That is, there has been no interaction of the ball with video generated images or features.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,286 to Seitz et al. incorporates a CRT screen mounted in the playfield to, in effect, incorporate a video game into the same cabinet with the pinball game. In the Seitz et al. patent, the pinball game and video game are described as essentially separate games. However, there is some provision for interaction between the video and pinball games, to the extent that achieving certain conditions during one or the other of the games might enable or initiate play in the other of the two games.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,876 to Kotoyori is directed to a pinball machine which has a CRT display unit taking up a portion of the backbox for indicating scores of the players. The Kotoyori patent also provides for multiple player scores to be displayed, with the score of the player presently playing preferably being displayed in a larger size than the scores of the other players. This display may also identify each of the displayed scores with a player by displaying such indications as "first player," "second player," etc. adjacent the scores.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,303 to Trudeau et al. is directed to a pinball game having a holographic display of a fixed image which is displayed through a transparent panel in the playfield. A light illuminating the image may be moved, and the plate upon which the image is mounted may also be flexed or otherwise moved, to cause the image to appear to the player to move from left to right and/or toward and away from the player.